Most years you pick a destination. 2027 picks the dates for you. A total solar eclipse, a Holy Year in Santiago, a millennium in Normandy and a wave of major anniversaries make next year unusually rich in moments worth booking around — and the event trips will sell out first.
The headline act is the total solar eclipse on 2 August 2027. Luxor sits almost directly under the path, with around six minutes and twenty seconds of totality — one of the longest of the century — and reliably clear skies. Picture darkness falling over Karnak and the Valley of the Kings. If Egypt in August sounds too hot (it regularly tops 40°C), the same eclipse crosses southern Spain, with about four and a half minutes of totality near Tarifa. Watching it from the Roman ruins at Baelo Claudia on the coast, Morocco visible across the water, is arguably Europe's most accessible eclipse experience — but Tarifa is small, so reserve early.
2027 is also a Jacobean Holy Year in Santiago de Compostela, something that only happens when the Feast of St James (25 July) falls on a Sunday. The cathedral's Holy Door stays open all year and pilgrims flood the Camino. The next one isn't until 2032. You only need to walk the final 100km to earn the Compostela, and quieter routes like the Camino Inglés or the Portuguese way are smart picks given record crowds expected.
History buffs get a trio of anniversaries. Normandy marks 1,000 years since the birth of William the Conqueror with over 1,000 events, including a Viking-style flotilla in June and a rare showing of the Bayeux Tapestry's "missing scene" at Falaise — though check ahead, as the Bayeux museum is being renovated until late 2027. Jaipur turns 300, with the Jaipur Literature Festival hitting its 20th edition in January. And Wimbledon celebrates 150 years since the first Championships in 1877, complete with a statue of Andy Murray.
Beyond the big set pieces: the Tour de France's Grand Départ leaves Edinburgh on 2 July, en route to a summer that also brings the new Scottish Dark Sky Observatory in Dumfries and Galloway. Japan stacks up GREEN×EXPO in Yokohama (March to September), cherry blossoms in late March, and the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale in Niigata from July. In the US, Highway 1 through Big Sur is set to finally reopen after three years of landslide closures, restoring the classic San Francisco-to-Los Angeles drive.
The through-line: if you want to be somewhere when it matters, book now. Eclipse week in Luxor or Tarifa, Holy Year accommodation on the Camino, and Big Sur's handful of cliffside hotels are exactly the kind of things that vanish a year out. Everyone else can slot in the classics — the Amalfi Coast for a slow summer, the Maldives for a honeymoon — around whatever moment you chase.
Story via World of Wanderlust.
